


What's Inside

by SeptemberObserver



Category: Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Bromance, F/M, Friends With Benefits, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-26
Updated: 2012-10-26
Packaged: 2017-11-17 02:48:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/546822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeptemberObserver/pseuds/SeptemberObserver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Bucky become reacquainted after the prison camp break out</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's Inside

**Author's Note:**

> The lines in italics are directly from the Cap film, and are what inspired this little one-shot. 
> 
> Huge thanks to my lovely test pilots, as ever, Downdelta and Junksterr.

Seeing your best friend for the first time after they shipped off to war was always a big deal. For most, it had to wait till Adolf and Schmidt were done. Broken men, grateful to see that their companions were at least in one piece, would hug and drink and try to rebuild their lives around the ghosts.

 

For Steve Rogers, however, things were never that simple. Bucky had only been gone a few months when Steve found himself in the very barracks his best friend was supposed to be fighting from. A foot taller, 150 pounds heavier and colour in his cheeks for the first time in his life and yet still his life was falling apart. New found strength that had been intended to solve his problems yet had so far been used only to lift dancers was finally allowed to surge into life the second he perceived the slightest trace of a chance to save his absent friend. 

 

So now here they were, right in the heart of enemy territory; one man a lot closer to breaking, the other feeling like he was finally whole. There's no emotional reunion, there's no time for that, they just run, explanations tossed around between half formed plans and jokes that come as easy as if little had changed between them.

 

It was days till they managed to re-find base, till they got to have the real de-brief of their improvised mission in a busy pub in a sleepy English town. Promises were made, bonds forged and strengthened by the tang of alcohol and the relief of return. Steve peeled away from the team as soon as he could, craving the company only of his friend, trying to sound casual as he could as he made the invitation his new friends had so willingly taken up. 

 

" _You ready to follow 'Captain America' into the jaws of death?_ " He knew what the answer would be.  Bucky, like himself never backed down from a fight, but he had to ask, more to hear the acceptance of the new him than the new mission. 

 

" _Hell no. That little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb to run away from a fight? I'm following him_ "

 

Shoulders Steve hadn't realised were taught relaxed instantly, a half smile the only tell of his relief as he saw the warmth in Bucky' s eyes, knowing that he understood, never expected anything less of the wiley kid with more inner strength than his frail body could carry. One heartbeat was all it took for them to slip back into their old roles, teasing way closer to the knuckle than they'd ever let anyone else get.

 

" _You're keeping the outfit, right?_ " Bucky said, a crooked smile already creeping up his features. 

 

' _You know what? its kinda growing on me_ '

Bucky laughed, his eyebrow raised, his eyes shining with mirth and something Steve couldn't identify.

'You don't like it? Steve gestured at the poster still shaming him on the pub wall, his own face promising the kind of performance he was no longer willing to give.

'Oh I like it, gives me a clue as to what that scientist filled it with… like the outside finally matches the inside, you know?'

 

This time, Steve gets it, watching his friend's eyes scan him up and down on the wall before comparing the real thing at the bar. He'd seen that look before, usually directed at the friends of girls he was trying to fix Steve up with and only rarely to himself and never before with the pride that warmed it.

 

"Well I figured if I was waiting back home for you I should give you something to look at that wasn't going to put you off your victory dinner"

 

Bucky's laughter was cut short by the arrival of Agent Carter, handing out orders and sarcasm with barely a glance away from Steve, like his increased mass had altered the gravitational pull of the room. Steve held her gaze, completely ensnared by it, confidence filing him up with the intensity even as his friend attempted to get a rise from her. She deflected all of his flirting back to Steve leaving him both thrilled and utterly terrified. He had to stifle a laugh at Bucky as he saw the look he was giving the both of them as Agent Carter made her leave, having a good idea what his traitorous friend was thinking.

 

"Before you say anything, she's always been like that, and yes, I am basically terrified of her."

 

"You know, it always baffled me the way women looked at you before but that was something else... she looked like she wanted to climb up you, Steve"

 

Steve's head whipped around to meet Bucky's amused gaze, torn between shock, amusement and excitement before settling on disbelief, and he shook his head, ready to cut the remark down. Bucky beat him to it, turning to order another drink as he threw back another comment.

 

"Can't says I blame her either"

 

Steve studied the bartender, making sure he wasn't eavesdropping, even though he knew respect for the uniform would prevent any judgement being passed on. 

 

"Did Hydra give you a knock on the head, Buck?"

 

He'd seen the predatory grin that comment received too many times to even feign innocence, the strange undercurrent from before their interruption flaring back into life despite the strangeness of seeing it directed at himself and not Bucky's 'Dame of the Week'.

 

"You telling me you don't want to take the new you out for a spin?"

 

"I didn't say that but..." His eyes flicked to the other side of the bar where the rest of the Howling Commandos were christening themselves, paranoia raising his pulse as much as the tension between them. 

 

"We haven't done that since we were a pair of dumb teenagers"

 

It was as inevitable as it was stolen, in the end, hanging back as they staggered back to barracks, hands stuffed tight under regulation issue slacks in an even tighter dark alley, kisses meant more to silence their harsh breath than for any semblance of romance.

 

Steve could never decide  if he loved or hated the way they had to do things whenever this happened, the threat of getting caught sometimes filling him with as much thrill as dread, even as his best friend  sank to his knees just feet from where the rest of the team were laughing and joking.

 

"I still want to peel that suit off you one of these days, have since I first saw you in it" 

 

"I knew you were delirious, what'd those Krauts do to you?" They laugh as they fall into step on their way to subtly rejoin their troupe. If they notice the flush of ther skin or the hitch in their breath, it's never mentioned, because in this gaggle of misfits, what's inside, strengthening them for each of the battles to come, is all that matters.


End file.
